Court-martialed doc: Obama eligibility still in question

Now serving patients, former officer wonders why Constitution ignored

Even the “ch’mos” (child molesters) who were incarcerated in Fort Leavenworth with Lt. Col. Terry Lakin, the military physician court martialed for refusing orders because of concerns that Barack Obama wasn’t constitutionally eligible to be commander in chief, recognized that Obama’s release last year of a Hawaiian birth document didn’t resolve the question.

The just-released book explains what happened in his case, and more significantly, why.

The Army flight surgeon had served with distinction, but decided, based on available information and his solemn oath when he entered the military, that he had to question whether Obama is eligible to be commander-in-chief of the U.S. military and order soldiers into war.

He had tried for years to obtain confirmation through the channels inside the military, through his congressional representatives and other available channels, to no avail.

So he decided his oath of allegiance to the Constitution required him to refuse an order from the chain of command headed by Obama. That would, he thought, force the issue, and possibly elicit an answer.

He got an answer, but not to his question: He was court martialed and removed from the military. He now has joined a civilian physician’s practice where he sees patients daily.

In the book, Lakin notes that he was in Leavenworth, serving what amounted to a five-month sentence, when Obama released the document he claimed to be a copy of his original Hawaiian birth certificate.

It’s the same document Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s investigators have concluded is almost certainly a forgery.

Lakin describes the comments of other prisoners upon hearing news reports regarding the White House release of Obama’s supposed birth certificate:

“One question, Terry.”

“Shoot.”

“All you were asking for was a birth certificate, correct? If Obama had nothing to hide, how come he didn’t release it a long time ago?”

“I guess what they say is right: No one knows a con job better than a convict,” Lakin wrote.

The episode with the question from one of the “ch’mos” (child molesters) comes in the chapter titled “27 April 2011,” the date Obama released the document and posted it on the White House website.

Lakin notes that Obama claimed to have “had every official in Hawaii … confirm that, yes, in fact, I was born in Hawaii.”

“‘Every official in Hawaii’? I guess the president did not consult with Tim Adams. During the 2008 election cycle Adams served as senior elections clerk for the city and county of Honolulu,” Lakin wrote.

Adams had stated, “There is no hospital record of his birth in Honolulu … and the Hawaii Department of Health told us in the Elections Office that there was no birth certificate.”

“If you don’t know about Adams, there is a reason why. Within a week of his one radio interview on the subject [he was] put under a gag order,” Lakin wrote. “As of this writing, no official in Hawaii has made a serious effort to look into Obama’s birth certificate, and those who said they did have not been able to keep their stories straight.”

He also responded to Obama’s characterization of concerns over his legitimacy as “silliness.”

“‘Silliness’? Is that what all my efforts amounted to, court martial and imprisonment included? You might think that at this point I was totally deflated, but I wasn’t. I was a little disappointed, but more confused than disappointed. I hoped his birth certificate was for real, but I was skeptical,” he continued.

Lakin told WND a major concern that remains today is that officers all across the U.S. government take an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution which, in fact, requires certain qualifications for any president, including that he be a “natural born citizen.”

That’s where Obama has been challenged, some alleging he wasn’t born in the U.S. and others asserting it would make no difference since the Founders considered a “natural born citizen” to be the offspring of two citizen parents. Obama’s father was a foreign national visiting the U.S. as a student.

Lakin told WND he wonders how other officers are able to ignore the Constitution’s requirements, in light of their oath to uphold that document.

Americans, said Lakin, must face the realization that if the Constitution is ignored in this situation, the future will hold more incidents where the nation’s highest law will be passed over by those in power.

“We’re in a decline,” he said, and it is “a valid concern that this is a concerted effort by someone who may not be who he says he is.”

“People can hate me,” Lakin told WND. “They can call me whatever they want, think whatever they want of me. But the issue? It’s still not answered.”

Marco Ciavolino, who has worked with Lakin throughout his case and is the administrative trustee for the Terry Lakin Action Fund, said readers should appreciate a man who “took seriously his oath to protect and defend the Constitution.”

And he said there needs to be followup action by all Americans.

“Any elected official or appointee who flagrantly refuses to comply with the Constitution by commission or omission must be called to account,” he wrote. “That is all Terry asked for: simple compliance with the Constitution.”

“The Constitution was not created by accident. It was not a frivolous effort. Some seem to think a bunch of guys were sitting around a pub one night and said, ‘Hey, let’s start a country.’ The founding of our country was anything but that,” he said.

“Our Constitution, Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, and other founding documents came out of thousands of years of struggle, death and dialogue, debate and discussion, bravery and boldness. They were the most precise expression of a form of government that finally abandoned the concept of a sovereign monarchy in favor of government by the people, for the people.”

Jack Cashill, author of multiple books, helped Lakin in telling his story, and David Mercaldo, a New York-based author, wrote vignettes about people involved in his case.